10/7/13 — THE ENDURING APPEAL OF LEE CHILD’S JACK REACHER

It takes a special kind of a protagonist to carry a long series of books.

Our heroes have to be characters we can root for and identify with.  We don’t expect to ever do what they can do, but we have to share their values and dreams and appreciate their finer qualities. (Think Robert Parker’s Spenser, whose sense of right and wrong comes along with his devotion to the woman he loves, a friend who’d die for him, and gourmet cooking skills).

They have to be unique, with special talents and characteristics that make them stand out in a crowd, as well as a weakness or two to make them human.